If you let go a little you a will have a little peace;
if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace;
if you let go completely you will have complete peace.Ajahn Kahn
I’m Not There holds a special place in Bob Dylan‘s oeuvre. Recorded in 1967 with The Band, never played live by Dylan. Eight years later, in 1975, the Basement Tapes were released; however, I’m Not There was not included. The recording was only published in 2007 via the remarkable movie of the same name. Six actors show facets of Bob Dylan, some playing historical figures, some playing fictional characters, including a black boy and a woman: Christian Bale (Jack Rollings / Reverend John), Cate Blanchett (Jude Quinn), Marcus Carl Franklin (Woody Guthrie), Richard Gere (Billy the Kid), Heath Ledger (Robbie Clark), Ben Whishaw (Arthur Rimbaud).
I’m Not There is not a finished song, there are no official lyrics. It is not displayed on Dylan’s homepage, which features lyrics to his songs. There are some transcripts, but they are not entirely conclusive.
My favorite quote about the song is from a Youtube comment:
The greatest example of how to chant, sing, spit and howl syllables without any bloody meaning while maintaining the integrity of a religious experience. Speaking in tongues.
Peter Post, a German-language author and singer, created an album of Dylan covers and wrote a great article “Bob Dylan and me”, also titled I’m not there. In it he describes captivatingly and knowledgeably how Dylan struggles for presence, for true identity.
Breaking through to one’s true identity means to let go of anything artificial, any pseudo-identity. And what is the ego, other than pretense? German songwriter Rainald Grebe used the image of an onion in his song The psychological century: we keep peeling, but there is no core.
When anything insubstantial falls away, when any identification with our narrow being, which we perceive as separate from others, is dissolved – what remains?
Many spiritual people testify to experiences of connectedness: all-one rather than alone, immersing in a unity of souls. At this level, no separation exists.
What remains is pure awareness, consciousness.
Dylan described this state of being in one of his interviews:
You ought to be able to sort out those thoughts, because they don’t mean anything, they’re just pulling you around, too. It’s important to get rid of all them thoughts. Then you can do something from some kind of surveillance of the situation. You have some kind of place where you can see but it can’t affect you.
Song Talk Interview with Paul Zollo, 1991
Movie: Masked and Anonymous, 2003
Dylan didn’t restrict himself to songwriting, he also played in several movies. For Masked and Anonymous, he teamed up with director Larry Charles to write the script, played the main character, and spoke the part of the narrator.
Spoiler alert: If you’d like to see the movie first, don’t read on. However, I don’t think the plot is too spectacular. What I find fascinating about the movie is the demeanor – for me that of a being devoting life to the spirit-soul. Pure awareness, without any trace of judgement, is, to me, a trait of this demeanor.
The original divine soul is not at home in this world of opposites and constant conflicts, it is a prisoner here. At the start of the movie, the main character featuring the telling name Jack Fate is in prison. A shady organizer gets him out on bail in order to host a benefit concert. His motivation, however, is rather to pay off his personal debt. The country is torn by civil war. The last person to remember what the fighting was even about has died a long time ago. The president is dying. Strong images for a state of chaos, which we can relate to both in the world-at-large as well as within ourselves. Who would claim that her or his own life is entirely governed by wisdom and love?
The film was mostly rated very badly in spite of its all-star cast, including Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, John Goodman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke and Christian Slater. The soundtrack consists almost exclusively of Dylan covers, e. g. by Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia and Sophie Zelmani.
The main character is nothing but an artist, he doesn’t want to judge or solve anything, just express himself artistically. The soul wants to reveal itself without taking sides among the plethora of worldly opinions.
In the end, the main character is framed for murder, the film ends with a trip to police custody. Jack Fate does not defend himself, he accepts his fate in silence.
Bob Dylan: Dark Eyes
Dark Eyes, published on Empire Burlesque in 1985, contains a few lines that touch me like very few lines I ever encountered. They match this demeanor of pure, unbiased awareness.
They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes,
They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I’m sure it is.
But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized,
All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes.
Patti Smith had been through a rough patch in her life. I particularly like this live version.
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